Part I: A Little Extra Help

Chapter I:

Randy

There were a lot of things Randy Cunningham could appreciate about fighting robots versus fighting stanked kids. The main one, though, was that all of McFist's robots had the same fatal weak spot: the head. The main programming and processors were almost always in the head. So if you pop off the noggin, the rest goes down with it. Occasionally in some sort of explosion. There was probably some practical reason as to why they exploded upon defeat, but frankly Randy didn't care why. He just knew that the Ninja looked pretty sweet with an explosion for a backdrop.

Of course, it was a little bothersome when the explosions took out part of wherever he was fighting, but eighty percent of the time he was able to just smoke bomb out of there and none of the damage actually resulted in being his problem. Besides, the people loved him. As their hero, they never bothered blaming any slightly-less-than-necessary destruction on him. It was always the bad guys fault.

Anyway, this particular Thursday happened to fall under that pesky twenty percent.

Randy had been trying to keep a robo-ape from doing...whatever it was the robo-ape was doing in the school gym (probably part of some plot to uncover him that would make perfect sense should he actually be able to hear it in its totality), when he sliced a section of the robot that wasn't its head. The resulting explosion was twice the size of a normal ape explosion, and, unprepared, Randy fell clumsily into the audience seats. This still would have been all well and dandy - the Ninja had taken some harder hits in his time and walked away - except that half of the row of seats above him were rocked right out of their bolts and landed on top of him.

The Mask kept most of the dust out his mouth, but Randy was still coughing after the dust settled. "Smoke bombs I can get used to," he said to himself, "but I will never get the taste of dirt out of my mouth."

Giving himself a quick once over, he found himself marginally okay, albeit covered by a stack of concrete and stadium seating, but when he tried to pull himself to out with he found himself stuck. There was plenty of light in his little cave, so when he looked back over his shoulder he got a clear view of his ankle stuck under a pile of rubble.

"...the juice?" he grumbled. He pulled at his leg and it responded with a spike up pain up his ankle and the rest of the rubble shifting over his head. "Aw, this is wonk." He took a deep breath. "It's cool, it's cool," he told himself. "I'll just bust out of here, sending debris in all directions, thus freeing my ankle. Then I can land some healing mojo on it and still be conscious enough to make it to Spanish."

"VICEROY!"

Randy picked a choice swear under his breath and leaned over to look through a crack in the rubble. While Randy was stuck, McFist had found his way to the gym floor. How he had gotten there so fast, Randy wasn't sure. Maybe he had been watching the whole time. If that was the case, he hopped McFist wouldn't realize that the Ninja was still there.

"VICEROY! Get in here!" McFist shouted. "Now what are we supposed to do? Get in here and fix this!"

"Sir," Randy leaned further to try and get a glimpse of Viceroy, but he wasn't close enough for him to make out around the rubble. "My sensors are picking up another person in the room."

Randy's gasp was blocked out by McFist's "What?!"

Randy's breath caught in his throat and tried tugging at his foot again but barely held back a cry of pain.

"Is it the Ninja?" McFist was asking.

"Only one way to find out, isn't there?"

"Can't your "sensors" find out?"

Randy was too busy panicking to hear the resulting conversation. He wasn't going to be able to get his ankle out without a serious explosion of Ninja-awesome, but the flying rubble would likely hit either McFist or Viceroy; and, as much as he hated both of them, there were some pretty large chunks of concrete and he didn't want to be responsible for seriously injuring someone. He's supposed to be a hero. On the other hand, McFist's robo-arm could probably get him out of the rubble easily, but if he pulled out the Ninja, Randy doubted he could escape so easily on his ankle.

Desperate, Randy yanked the mask off of his face, the rest of the suit peeling off with it. The Namicon's going to kill me this time, I know it, he thought painfully before shoving the mask down the back of his pants. Just before the first chunk of rubble shifted, Randy closed his eyes.

"What? S'just a kid!" Randy tried not to flinch when McFist shouted.

"Looks like he's unconscious."

"Oh, well...I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Shouldn't we take him to the nurse or something?"

"Well... we'll just dig him out from the rubble and put him in the hallway. I'm sure he's fine."

Randy tried not to move while he was pulled out from under the seats and roughly thrown over a large shoulder. He wasn't exactly the expert on what it would take wake someone who'd passed out, but he was pretty sure the jarring steps down the bleachers would be enough. Still, he kept his eyes shut anyway.

Maybe it said something about character that neither McFist nor Viceroy noticed, but it's not like he expected any better from them.

He was pretty sure he wasn't able to hold back the grunt when McFist's fist dropped him on the floor in the hallway, but the only sound after was that of the gym door slamming and McFist's muffled yelling. Randy lay on the floor for a moment. His ankle was throbbing and his shirt was riding up to his neck from McFist lifting him. Now all he had to do was go all ninja on his ankle then he could grab his bag from his locker and still get to-

RIIIIINNNNNGGGG

Randy's eyes popped open. "Crud."

He rolled instinctively onto his feet and regretted it immediately. His right food gave out from under him and sparks went up his leg but he started running anyway. He wasn't entirely sure how he got his bag out of his locker and kept going, but by the time he got to the door to his Spanish room he couldn't feel his toes. He threw the door open, maybe a little harder than intended, and flung himself into his seat faster than humanly possible.

"Howard," he whispered, leaning towards his best friend and putting his bag on the floor. "What did I-"

"Señior Cunningham!" Señiora Jorge shouted from the front of the class. "This is your fifth tardy this week!"

Randy held out his arms. "But it's only Thursday!"

"Do not talk back to me, chico!" She scolded. "You have been too lax in your studies. I am giving you detention."

Randy's arms fell to his sides. "Que?"

"Make that three detentions," she corrected, brandishing a ruler rather threateningly. "After school. Hoy, mañana, y lunes."

Randy stuttered. "W-what does that even mean?"

"Today, tomorrow, and Mon-"

"Thank you, Debby Kang." Randy cut her off, dripping sarcasm. "Thanks."

"De nada."

Randy slammed his face into his desk and groaned.

It's not like he'd never had detention before. Okay, maybe more than a few times. But then one of them was barely a detention and they didn't even stay through the whole thing because of the whole tengu business; and the other time, Principal Slimovitz had been going detention crazy so it was easy to hide behind the other forty kids crammed in the room that day. This was different. This was "sit with three or four other kids for an hour under the scrutinizing glare of the band director". But these wouldn't be, "I ran too fast in the cafeteria" kids. These would be "I shoved a dork in a locker right after I took his underwear out of his pants and decorated my breakfast with his tears" kids.

"Tough luck, bromigo." Howard whispered. "So listen, since today's plans are obviously cancelled, can I still borrow some cash for the Game Hole?"

Randy rolled his head to look up and glare at Howard.

"Alright, alright." Howard sniffed. "Just because you're screwed doesn't mean we all have to be."

Randy moaned and wrapped his arms around his head. The desk was starting to feel especially comfortable for some reason. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the past week. Between Grave Puncher marathons and the one late night ninja mission, sleep wasn't exactly a priority.

"Aw, c'mon, RC. You've handled worse." Howard told him, giving him a hard pat on the back. When he got no response he poked Randy in the arm. "Bro?"

Howard slowly lifted his bro's arm from his face only to find his eyes closed and his mouth hanging open slightly, letting out sleeping breaths.

"Randy! Hey, Cunningham!"

Randy snapped up in his chair so fast his back popped. "What! What's happening?" He whipped a trail of drool off his chin, more than a little grossed out with himself, and glanced around the room at the kids standing up around him. "Did class end? I didn't hear the bell."

"Calm down, man," Howard told him. "There was just an announcement. We're all supposed to meet up on the yard, out in front of the building."

Randy blinked up at him, working the sleepy blur out of his eyes. Had he really just fallen asleep in class? "What for?" he asked.

Howard shrugged. "Some assembly or something. C'mon, we're falling behind."

Running a hand through his hair, Randy lifted his bag off the floor and unfolded himself out of his seat to follow Howard. He went maybe two steps before stumbling and nearly falling on his face. He caught himself on a desk, but fire went up his ankle.

"Cunningham, come on!" Howard turned around at the doorway. The rest if the class had already filed out. A look of concern passed his face when he saw Randy. "You okay, man?"

"I think my ankle's busted," Randy ground out through his teeth. "I can probably fix it with some Art of Healing, but I need somewhere to do it."

"But we're supposed to be out front for the assembly."

"If that many people see me limping around they'll get suspicious if I heal it later."

"You could just...not heal it?" Howard didn't look too convinced either.

"Yeah, because the Ninja will have such an easy time beating up stank monsters and robots with a broken ankle?"

"Well..." Howard bounced on his toes. "Alright, do it here, I'll watch the door." He quickly shut the door behind him.

Quickly, Randy sat down on one of the desks and propped his ankle up on another. As he sat, it felt awkward and he flinched when he remembered why. Guiltily, he pulled the mask out of his pants. Looking at it in his hands, he had a brief moment of wondering how many other ninjas have done that. I put this thing on my face... Randy shrugged. Not like it was the first time he's stuck it down his pants.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled it on. "Aw, it's warm!" he whined while the suit covered the rest of him.

Sucking in air through his nose, he held his hands out to his ankle. The sensation was tingly and warm, but the energy sap happened almost just as fast. He had to stop before he was sure he was done to keep from falling asleep again right there.

Randy gave himself a hard shake and slapped either side of his face. Carefully at first, he took his foot off the desk and rolled it around a little. It felt a little stiff, but it didn't hurt. More confidently, he took a few steps across the room.

"Healing powers are so bruce." He cheered, before pulling the mask off and grabbing his bag. Just before shoving the mask inside, he caught the glow coming from the Nomicon coming from behind his forgotten Spanish book. "Nomicon? What no-"

"Cunningham! You done yet?"

"I'm coming, Howard!" He glanced guiltily at the book before zipping his bag shut. "Not now, Nomicon. I'll be there soon, okay?" he mumbled, mostly to himself, before swinging the bag over his shoulder.

In the hallway, Heidi ran up to them. "Howard!" she shouted, holding her phone up to his face. "What is this?"

"Uhm," Howard squinted at the screen. "A message from our parents?" His eyes skimmed for a moment then went wide. He grabbed the phone from his sister and read the message again. "What!"

"That's what I'm asking!" Heidi gesticulated.

"What are we asking?" Randy asked.

"Oh, hey Sandy," Heidi greeted. "I didn't see you there."

"It's still Randy, but thanks."

"Our parents are saying to meet then on the yard outside," Howard said, still staring at the phone in horror.

Randy's own eyes widened. "Your parents are at school?"

"My parents are at school."

"Did they send you the same message?"

Howard pulled his own phone out of his pocked and flipped through it. "Negative."

"Then we can pretend you didn't get the memo and we can watch the assembly from the roof." The words came out in a tumble. "Come on, let's go!"

Howard tossed Heidi's phone back to her ("Hey!") while Randy grabbed him by they backpack and pulled him in the other direction. His ankle was still sore, but at least he could move on it now.

Up on the roof, which was conveniently left unlocked after a particularly slow day for the Ninja, Howard and Randy dropped their bags in the shade of the clock tower and leaned over the edge to see to the ground. Three stories down, a crowd was forming around a temporary stage set up on the front steps, below them. There were also several lines of cars, still growing, along the street curb where there were no more parking spaces.

"I don't think your parents are the only ones here," Randy observed, spotting Mrs. McFist among the crowd, her husband absent, but she stood next to Bash instead. The yard was littered with other small groups of parents and kids.

"Is this a meeting for the whole town?" Howard asked.

Randy shrugged.

"Attention! Attention, town members!" Principal Slimovitz' voice blasted out of his megaphone across the yard. "Thank you very much for coming today. Now, as some of you may know, one of our neighboring towns has been having a little...pest control issue, so the entire population is being formally evacuated by government officials until this mess gets sorted out."

"'Neighboring towns?'" Randy turned to Howard. "We have neighboring towns?"

"I don't know dude, we're like, in the Middle of Nowhere, Nowhere."

"Wait, isn't there some po-dunk town like, twenty miles from here? Anxiety Park or something?" Randy scratched his head, thinking. "I heard it's full of psychos."

"Well, sure," Howard reasoned. "But have you taken a good look at Norisville? I mean, there's a giant metal pyramid in the middle of town."

"Fair point."

"Now, now," Principal Slimovitz tried to calm the crowd. "We have been guaranteed that the infestation has been contained. The residents, however, are in need of places to stay, and our fair town has so graciously decided to volunteer!"

"Since when?"

"No, no, I think I've heard about this." Howard said. "I heard my dad talking about some sort of community vote for something or other. I wasn't really listening, it was lasagna night."

"Ooh, the one with the extra cheese layers?"

Howard patted his stomach. "Oh, yes."

"The residents will be arriving this weekend and we've already set up the list of families matched to host families where they can stay for the foreseeable future. So, today, we have their mayor, here to speak on their behalf."

There was an awkward applause amongst the crowd as a well-trimmed man was handed Slimovitz' megaphone. His hair was fully gray and pulled back into a low tail, but he couldn't have been any older than his early forties. He ran a hand down the front of his suit after shaking Slimovitz' hand.

"Hello, citizens of Norrisville," he stated. "I was so sorry to hear that your own mayor was not available today, but, none the less, I am grateful to you all. So many of you have agreed to lend us a helping hand in our time of need, and we can never repay you enough." He made a polite chuckle and held up a hand. "My apologies, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Vlad Masters, and I speak to you on behalf of the people of Amity Park."

(Edited: 1/5/2015)

Reviews are appreciated :)

-Kinetic